The Stupid Interior Questions Thread

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JJZ71

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I get most my parts from scrap yards. Somethings I have to wait to find in good condition but you get most the stuff cheap. "Must have now" or "must have new" parts, I get from LMC truck.
 

ima93chevyguy

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Anyone know about replacing the spring in the column shifter on the 88-94 interiors? I noticed this week that it must have broke or something because it is no longer as springy and now flops around.
 

Banditz71

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Since this thread is "so" long, it was a little tough to scan it all ... so hope this wasn't discussed earlier .... but anyway, I've got a 1995 K1500 with the bucket seats .... a few years ago, the front attach points on the drivers side both broke (a short time apart) ... it now just pivots on the rear attach points. So, I've got a very stylish office chair box behind my seat so I don't end up in the back seat. ;-) Has anyone else had this happen? Any fixes? Or do I just need to find a seat in a salvage yard? I just need to replace the pedestal part, I want to keep my original seat. Been a GREAT truck ... I now have 405k mi. on it ... this pic was taken in Jan. when it rolled over 400k.
 
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sewlow

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I've never done it so no actual hands-on experience, but from what I've seen & read here, the buckets have been swapped before.
It's not exactly a straight forward swap.
The info is in this thread...s-o-m-e-w-h-e-r-e...!!! 1125 posts so far. That may may be a bit of a necro-dig!
Don't remember reading about what it takes to get the rear one in. I know that that's not a drop-in either.
Best suggestion off of the top of my head is to use the factory risers from the 400 & do any mods between the seat & the riser. That's because the risers are shaped to fit the 400's floor pan while the 800's floor shape is different.
Gm was pretty good at keeping common dimensions & bolt patterns for their tracks over the years. The main differences are the shape & length/height of the legs of the tracks themselves according to the various floor pan shapes. This makes bolting GM tracks to seats out of other GM vehicles pretty easy. You may find that the 800's tracks work with the 400 risers, or it may be the 400's work better. Test-fit test-fit test-fit!
Same with the rear. Try to use as much of the 400 bracketry & mod the 800's cushions/backrest to that.
But, like I say, I've no hands-on with this particular swap. I'm just going with whatever experience I've gathered over the too-damned-many years of interior trimming.

Where's you guys that have done this?
 
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Darrin De May

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'95-'98? Gently work your fingers around the edges pullin it away as you go around. You'll feel the clips let go. Once it's all unclipped, work the bezel towards you from the top. Unclip the wires from the headlight switch. (A PITA!) The bezel will want to hang up on the E-flasher button, & the top of the cluster opening. Gently, but firmly work the top of the bezel out from the dash. If it's an automatic, you'll have to drop the lever into low.

The first time that I did this, there was so much creaking & groaning getting the clips to unsnap that it felt like the whole thing was going to break in half! Since then, it's been way easier. I've got it out now because I've got another instrument cluster that I'm swapping parts around with.

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Darrin De May

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Manual or power doors? If manual, you'll need a door handle removal tool. Cheap! $5.00?
The bezel around the inner door handle has clips that are round the INSIDE of the opening, & the clips push to the OUTSIDE of the ring. The clips are on the flat sides of the opening. Don't force them. I try to get one. or two clips opposite of each other released then push a piece of cardboard in there to keep them from re-attaching while getting the others unclipped. 1/2 a hacksaw blade with the teeth ground off works well, too! My tool of choice for this.
If you break the clips, good luck getting any from the wreckers. People just rip those off, cause they don't know or care & break the clips so they're useless.


If you don't have a window crank removal tool, you can always use the rag method, just be careful that you don't lose the little spring clip when it pops off:

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Darrin De May

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When installing blue LED's in the gauges, how do you keep the needles and other red parts red? Is there separate bulbs for those areas?


When I bought a used instrument cluster on eBay from a seller in Tennessee, the first thing that jumped out at me was how nice the orange needles looked. Mine are all sun-bleached white by the Southern California Sun and have been that way since I bought the truck used. I'd been thinking about getting some of the orange fluorescent paint that you can buy to restore faded needles, but now I don't have to!
 

Darrin De May

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Me, I gave up on the OEM sills and stripped-head screws and went with these. :)

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Those ARE nice, but now that it's five years since you posted that photo, it seems that Stylin' Trucks has gone out of business, and I've had no luck finding them by Googling Billet Specialties, either. Other styles that I've found attach differently, I like how yours bolt on from underneath the cab, eliminating the Phillips screw head problem.
 

Darrin De May

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Yeah, pretty sure my shop quoted me $150 or so to re-cover them. I'll do it one of these days, but I'm going to wait until my headliner bugs me enough to drop the $500 on that. For the time being I just stuck some neodymium magnets up there to keep the fabric from hitting me on the top of my head. :gr_grin:

Gonna have to remember that quick fix! My headliner sags a bit at this point, but not enough to hit my head yet. When it finally does, I've already got plenty of neodymium magnets that I pulled out of crapped-out hard drives!
 
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